Forres St Lawrence opening batsman Pritpal Dhami’s unbeaten 176 at Cooper Park last weekend inspired the Grant Park club to overcome what should have been a match-winning score of 276 for four posted by Elgin.
Despite 113 from Elgin’s Mark Patten, 66 from Rick Wimble and Andy Hines’ 59 not out, the visitors won by six wickets thanks mainly to Dhami’s brilliant knock.
The 29-year-old, who lives at Elgin, played cricket to a high standard in India before he moved to Moray in March 2012. He was north cricket’s leading-scorer last season, amassing 1,065 runs.
Ahead of tomorrow’s home tussle with Highland, Dhami said: “I am really enjoying my cricket. Last week we all played well in the match against Elgin and we ended up on the winning side.
“This weekend we have home advantage against Highland, but they do they do have several very good players such as Jonathan Crabtree and John Paul, and I believe that they also have a new West Indian fast bowler, Kaey Clement, so that should make it interesting.”
Dhami is confident Forres can be in the mix to reclaim the title Fochabers took from them last year. He added: “Last year we had more points than they did, but the championship was decided on percentages, so they took it in the last match of the season. They only needed to take two points from it and they managed to do it.
“They made 150 batting first and we had to chase that down without losing any wickets. We reached 124 for none but when Gus Farr got out that was that – we won the game but not the title unfortunately.”
In tomorrow’s other matches champions Fochabers entertain Nairn County, Buckie welcome Ross County to Linzee Gordon Park and Fort William make the trek east to play Elgin at the Cooper Park.